This invention, in general, relates to refrigeration. More particularly, this invention relates to cooling an environment using a low temperature heat source.
Refrigeration is used for cooling private homes and public buildings, and for preserving edible items in homes, restaurants and large storage warehouses. Refrigeration is also used in manufacturing industries, oil refineries, chemical plants, and petrochemical plants. Healthcare institutions, for example, hospitals, pharmacies, and blood banks, use refrigeration to store medicines, samples, etc. Refrigeration is also used for transport of temperature sensitive goods by trucks, trains, airplanes, and sea vessels.
Typically, cooling apparatuses require a large amount of energy for cooling an environment. Compressor type cooling apparatuses typically require electricity for operation. Absorber type cooling apparatuses may run on sources of energy other than electricity, for example, a heat source. However, the absorption type cooling apparatuses require high temperature heat sources, for example, gas burners, electric heating elements, etc., for operation. A heat source providing temperatures sufficient to operate an absorber type cooling apparatus may be difficult to obtain from the environment or waste heat. If the heat is supplied using gas burners or electric heat sources, the cooling apparatus may be as expensive as compressor type cooling apparatuses. Furthermore, the initiation time and termination time in absorption type cooling apparatuses are high, thereby reducing the initial cooling efficiency and the total cooling efficiency of the cooling apparatus. Furthermore, current absorber type cooling apparatuses are less user friendly, and therefore a less practical apparatus.
Hence, there is a need for a method of cooling an environment using a low temperature heat source where the initiation time and termination time are sufficiently low.